Friday, July 27, 2012

Bureau of Lies.

The day before yesterday, the NWS was issuing dire warnings about a "strong cold front" headed our way. Thunderstorms! 1-inch hailstones! Half-an-inch to an inch of rain! The temperature would drop from 96 degrees to 83 degrees!

I went and bought a six-pack of beer yesterday and prepared to settle in on the front porch to watch the glorious rain, only to see the line of precipitation disintegrate over the dead, dusty corn fields of southern Illinois. Not a drop fell here, and it was still in the high nineties at Roseholme as the sun went down.

I hope the National Weather Service dies in a crotch fire.
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21 comments:

Spud said...

Best stock up now before the rush...

6:19 AM, July 27, 2012
Woodman said...

Meanwhile, 15 miles north of Indy, we got 2 inches of rain last week. My sinuses are a wreck going from wet humid Pendleton to arid Indy and back every day. Weird.

I will actually have to mow my back yard for the third week in a row, the front sun scorched yard I'll maybe trim with scissors, it's green too, but it was horribly burned. My north/south house has a satellite image that looks like Two-Face.

6:19 AM, July 27, 2012
Tam said...

Woodman,

Yeah, it went from a solid green-'n'-yellow line on the radar to little green freckles somewhere out over Peoria.

I saw that one cell that held on and passed north of Indy and hoped we'd catch at least a little of it, but no dice.

6:31 AM, July 27, 2012
Ancient Woodsman said...

Sympathize with you. We had that pattern in the mid-90s. 1995 was the first year that Hotshot crews and Type 1 air tankers came from the west to the northeast.

I'd watch the big green blobs on the radar, promising relief in buckets of rain, knowing that my counterparts in upstate NY, VT, and western NH were getting soaked. Sure enough, every time the blob would dissipate somewhere crossing between the Connecticut and Pemi/Merrimack valleys and we'd just bake in eastern NH & ME.

Frank from the NWS office in Taunton, MA, told us then, "Dry breeds dry."

Except for last night when we finally got a 20 minute gully washer, we've had that same pattern this year, too.

6:47 AM, July 27, 2012
Blackwing1 said...

Hang on! There might be some (short-term/temporary) heat relief on the way. Up here in Minnesnowta we just got a Canadian low that swept in some nice, cool and DRY air. Dewpoints have tumbled from mid-70's to upper 50's, and we actually had a low temperature this morning that more closely approximately Chu-Shu and Di-Fi's IQ.

This stuff is usually on its way to your area after a day or so.

Of course, we're expected to be flirting with triple-digits again by early next week, but it's nice to give the A/C a break for a day or two.

7:42 AM, July 27, 2012
Alien said...

Turned off the weather radio last week because the Perpetually Terrified at NWS were sending out "we're all gonna die" thunderstorm alerts every couple of hours.

Needless to say, never saw a drop, nor a cloud.

Alien

7:50 AM, July 27, 2012
John said...

Same pattern here on the west coast of Iowa Wednesday night.

Preparing to go to work I looked at the radar, saw lots of pretty colors heading toward Omaha and figured I'd get wet if I rode the motorcycle. So I did.

We got two hours of building clouds, increasing lightning and thunder, and 10 minutes of sprinkles.

Mother Nature is SUCH a tease!

8:02 AM, July 27, 2012
Roger said...

Well at least the beer was cold & wet!

8:50 AM, July 27, 2012
og said...

But you'd better believe they're right about Gloebull Warmening.

8:57 AM, July 27, 2012
Anonymous said...

One of the Storm Chaser Imperial Battlewagons is parked in town. They burned a lot of gas for nothing.

Gerry

9:18 AM, July 27, 2012
Panamared said...

As a kid growing up in Florida we had a saying about weather men. It was, only fools and damn Yankees try to predict the weather. I think I was 12 or 13 before I realized damn Yankees was two words.

10:06 AM, July 27, 2012
RedRoverRedRover said...

After a particularly hard winter here in El Annoy, I heard someone say my favorite commentary on weather:

Whoever's in charge of weather - you're fired. Seriously, just turn in your keys.

10:21 AM, July 27, 2012
LCB said...

Odd thing...it all reformed and hit SW Ohio. We lost power to over 4000 customers yesterday...still working on restoring power.

And the rain? Just enough to make the weeds grow faster. No hope for the grass...burnt yeller.

10:30 AM, July 27, 2012
Brad K. said...

@ Og,

I never doubted that the climate was changing. 40 years ago respected scientists reported the 1950's was the mildest decade on record. Just after the profligate expenditure of fuel and munitions of WWII. Who knew?

The tree huggers in the last few years didn't quite get the reports from both NASA and the Army that studies show all the planets in the solar system are warming. That kind of lets out the EPA as the path to salvation.

We watched the Brazilians destroy the Amazon rain forest for the better part of a half century, the Asians are doing it to themselves over there. Heck, the US wiped off the old growth forest that used to cover the Atlantic to Mississippi chunk of CONUS, Europe seriously reduced their Black Forest and other old growth forests over the past few hundred years.

We put up highways and steel and tar roofed buildings. So, yes, we are doing things to change the weather.

So, yep, stuff is happening. And even now, no one has shown that the methane from belching cows is greater than the methane from rotting, uneaten grass and grains. Volcanoes blow up and scatter ashes and acids and crud.

I was so very disappointed that we didn't end global warming when we kept Gore out of the White House, but there it is.

10:32 AM, July 27, 2012
Tam said...

LCB,

"Odd thing...it all reformed and hit SW Ohio. We lost power to over 4000 customers yesterday...still working on restoring power."

Yeah, it was sliding NW to SE, so most of it north of Indy staye more or less intact, and that's what slid down y'all's way, gathering strength in the afternoon heat. It looked like some serious convective activity was going down by the time it got to y'all.

On the color radar, it looked like the insignia of the Guinean air force passed just north of Cincy a little after 3:00...

11:27 AM, July 27, 2012
Ygolonac said...

The automated NWS alerts out here in Eastern Washington cover a *large* area; there ones from last week or so were continually popping up for Severe Thunderstorm Warnings.

For places in Montana, 100-ish miles east.

"Yeah, we know about those storms - they rolled through here a couple-few hours ago. And unless there's some *really* impressive weather changes, they're never coming back."

11:43 AM, July 27, 2012
LCB said...

Tam, I'd hate for you to get your hopes up...but watching the weather it looks like you may get some honest to goodness rain over the next 6 hours.

1:12 PM, July 27, 2012
John Richardson said...

I think everyone in Indiana would probably hate our local Western North Carolina TV weather chicks when they say it is going to be a hot day. The high temp they are calling hot is 89. Of course, the humidity is 80-90 percent.

2:03 PM, July 27, 2012
Firehand said...

Og, I once pointed out to a lady who'd asked why I wasn't having fits about cars that- for one example- Pinatubo was putting out(BEFORE any actual eruption) 200-500 tons of sulfur dioxide per day, and Deity only knows how much during the eruptions; she just about blew a gasket that I'd bring up such 'minor' things in such a sacred matter, etc.

2:28 PM, July 27, 2012
DanH said...

That front went by me here in central Misery early in the morning and gave us our first day of sub-90s temps in 2 months. And today it only got to mid 90s instead of the high 90s-low triple digits we have been living with.
Only good thing about it is I don't have to mow the yard ;p

7:48 PM, July 27, 2012
Grumpy Old Fart said...

"As a kid growing up in Florida we had a saying about weather men. It was, only fools and damn Yankees try to predict the weather."

Yeah, that. Anywhere on the Gulf Coast. Here in SE Texas there have been so many times it has rained in the front yard and not in the back, or rained across the street and not here, that it has ceased to cause comment anymore.

I can't help feeling that if you have to put up with tornadoes and winter snows, you shouldn't have to put up with Gulf Coast weather in the summertime as well.

On the other hand, maybe you should be glad you're not dealing with hurricanes, the other distinctive aspect of Gulf Coast summers.

10:48 AM, July 28, 2012

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